Quick update.

I have four new MONARCHS OF MAYHEM interviews that have come in and three more that I’m waiting to arrive, and just have to schedule them and put them on the calendar. Last week completely threw my time table off, and this weekend isn’t helping any.

But yeah should have the next couple of MONARCHS OF MAYHEM up after the weekend.

And once all the MONARCHS OF MAYHEM posts are up that’s just the end of the first stage, the second stage is where it gets fun. But I’ll notify you of that when the time comes.

On another note the link usage has dipped a bit, so if we can turn that around that would be great. You guys using the links and purchasing through those links, is a huge deal. And is greatly appreciated.

Well that’s all the minor updates for this posting. Have a great night, and I’ll leave you with the craziest thing I read all day over on BLEEDING COOL, namely… Alan Moore goes… OFF! (Again:)). I love Alan Moore, even when he’s completely napalming everyone in sight.

Check out this line, from Mr. Moore:
“In the world that could have been, I could have carried on working happily with the American comics industry.

I know a way that they could have sorted out their continuity. I could have gotten rid of all of their problems for them. It would have been really simple. But, like I say, they unfortunately alienated me. But, they’ve done that [to] everybody who has been a heavy-hitter creatively. Jack Kirby and all the people who genuinely created stuff all got screwed. It was only the company employees who kind of created stuff that wasn’t really that original in the first place that didn’t. It was the Len Weins who kind of did all right out of it because they always did what the company told them.” — Alan Moore

But the thing about Alan Moore is, even when he is bitch slapping people, and saying ‘F*ck! You write like a retard!’. You cannot argue with the man, because he has the body of work, even to this day, to back up his talk. And the man has a reason to feel screwed.

So I completely get his tirade with the industry. Where I think he does a disservice to himself is with his burning of bridges with his co-creators. That has a bit to do with how Moore views himself.

From what I can gather reading his interviews, he does have a bit of a high opinion of himself, bordering on perceiving himself as the messiah, the savior of comics. Which while not true, is complicated by the fact… that it’s not entirely false. Alan Moore’s work made something… new out of comics. It redefined what a comic could be, it raised the bar, and here almost three decades after he raised that bar, no one else has arguably equaled it, and without argument no one has transcended it. Thirty years later and WATCHMEN is still hailed as the best, most sophisticated work the comics medium has produced.

So yeah given that, and given the fact you’ve been rewarded for this achievement by being repeatedly lied to, cheated, and used, and ripped off… yeah… I can see that persecution, mixed with an unequaled body of work, will give anyone a bit of a messianic attitude. His falling out with Dave Gibbons is part of this.

Moore taking an idealogical stance against Hollywood films, has been signing over his revenue from these films V FOR VENDETTA and WATCHMEN etc to his co-creators. Moore’s stipulation being he wants his co-creators to call him up and thank him when they receive the money. Both David Lloyd and Dave Gibbons, ultimately balked at this.

Being an outsider I can see both points of view:

Moore sees he has on idealogical grounds signed over a considerable sum to his co-creators and wants to be thanked. But if I’m a co-creator my stance is ‘I didn’t tell you to sign over the money, if that’s what you want to do great, I appreciate it, but you’re not going to compel my appreciation. I’m not going to thank you for a work that is mine as much as it is yours’. And I can only gather that’s Lloyd’s and Gibbon’s stance.

This is the problem with altruism when it is misplaced, and I think in Moore’s case it is. He gives away the money but wants to be thanked.

Note to Moore: If you want to be thanked then give your proceeds to your family or a charity. But to relinquish your profits to your coworkers and then insist they thank you when they get the check??– well that’s you putting fellow creators and fellow men and I would assume fellow friends, in a subservient position to be beholden to you, and therefore that’s not giving them anything at all.

That behavior is attempting to buy something. So yeah I completely understand what Moore wants to do on idealogical grounds, but he would have been better doing it without expectation of being thanked, or bnot doing it at all.

So Moore, burning bridges with his friends, when friends always a rare commodity becomes ever rarer as we get older; is the only thing, If I had his ear, I would suggest he reconsider.

As far as his industry comments…

Well once again a lot of people are up in arms, talking smack about Alan Moore because of his attitude. Here’s the thing, you have to earn the right to throw bricks. And when it comes to the industry Alan Moore has earned the right to throw bricks. A lot of you attackers have not. Stay the heck out of it.

I agree that perhaps there’s another way to handle this almost three decade old feud, between Alan Moore and mainstream comics (specifically DC) rather than tossing gasoline on it. But if that’s not the way Alan Moore chooses to go, that’s his choice. I’m not in his shoes.

Sometimes the price of genius means you tow an idealogical line, perhaps to your detriment, and past the understanding of those of us who eat compromise for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And so we attack anyone who doesn’t compromise, or quiet down like the rest of us.

Alan Moore wants to rant, he’s earned the right to do so. Cause even when he is ranting, he is erudite, and informed, and teaching us about navigating the slippery slope of dealing with businesses… with conglomerates in the early days of the 21st century. Hopefully without losing our souls…. it’s a history lesson and a cautionary tale. So rather than objecting to Alan Moore having an opinion take from what he says… what works for you, and leave alone the rest.

Pretty simple.

Read Rich Johnston’s synopsis here and when done with that, go here to read the whole eight page interview! I’m going to call it right now, with a whole 10 months left in the year, the best/most important comics related interview of the year. :)!

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